Recently, Zarb School of Business Distinguished Professor Joel Evans of Hofstra University did an extended radio interview with Suzanne Phillips, Psy.D. on self-branding from different perspectives and across our diverse roles. Self-branding — how we see ourselves and how we want to be perceived by others — is a key to long-term personal and career success.

In this overview post, we are setting the stage for the interview, which is broken into three forthcoming parts/posts.

We have three major challenges in self-branding: (1) We must first understand ourselves and have personal clarity in deciding what self-brand we want to project to others. (2) There is often a gap between how we view ourselves and how others perceive us. We need to consider and act upon this. (3) Our self-brand must reflect EACH role we play; that is why we have multiple self-brands that we project to others (whether we realize it or not). Each role is usually distinctive: job professional, parent, friend, etc.

Consider these points from Professor Evans:

Honest self-assessment is a tough task for many people. We don’t like to think about our faults and hear that others have negative things to say about us. And self-assessment is time-consuming and needs to be conducted periodically – not just once. But self-assessment is perhaps the most important ingredient in crafting our self-brand for our various roles and life stages.

These are some factors to consider:

You must have a clear sense of your self-brand.

What are my short-term and long-term career and personal goals?

How close am I to reaching these goals?

What specific activities must I engage in/do (in each role and life stage) to reach these goals?

When I set my self-brand for each role & life stage, is it perceived that way by others? Can others get beyond stereotypes? Often, others do not see us as we see ourselves.

If I relate this to myself, I know there are clear differences in how I view myself and how others view me – and this has evolved through my own life stages and roles undertaken.

Today, I am a senior citizen by virtually every definition and seen as such by some others; but I don’t see myself that way.

For example, as a professor, even though I am the “old guy,” I run three blogs and I’m very active in social media. So, clearly, the stereotype about seniors and social media doesn’t apply to me.

Also as a professor, I understand that my students today see my gray hair, wrinkles, and bald spot and do not relate to me the same way now as they did when I started teaching. To address this, I wear loud and colorful ties and socks with fun patterns (such cats’ faces), and I show a lot of videos.

In another recent role, as father of the bride, my friends and family saw another side of me. But it was the other side that I wanted them to see.

Authenticity is imperative for a self-brand to be perceived as desired by others. Faking won’t cut it.

How can you translate your self-brand into a resume?

Join LinkedIn and browse through the profiles of others in the field you would like to have a career. Look at their descriptions of themselves.

Always do multiple drafts of a new resume and show them to people you trust. Include key words that are included in each job description.

You should always articulate your self-brand at the top of a resume. ( How – an example) Again, include buzz words from job descriptions.